Archive for
April, 2006

Jim Juczak, of Woodhenge fame, is a speaker at the upcoming Sustainable Energy Fair, builds wind turbines & cordwood homes, and lives off-grid. He’s coming up Memorial Day Weekend to teach a class (Sat & Sun) on building your own wind generator. We will be building and raising a 1000 watt wind turbine based on the design by Dan Fink and Dan Bartmann of Otherpower and Hugh Piggott (the godfather of home made wind power in Scotland). This home made Axial Flux 1000 watt turbine can be found in the Dans’ series in Back Home Magazine and ESSN Magazine, and is very easy to maintain by the owner/builder.

Let us know if you are interested in the class. It will be two very concentrated days. Dry camping for Tents and RV’s available. The Fee for the two day class is $100. Please RSVP by sending in a $25 registration and let us know what type of accommodations you require so we can plan accordingly.

New Greenpeace flash video reveals Sen Kennedy’s hypocritical ways! With his million-dollar views threatened, Sen Ted Kennedy is standing in the way of America’s first offshore wind farm. With the vote this week, Kennedy has attached a sneaky amendment to a Coast Guard bill that would kill the Cape Wind project.Greenpeace has made this great flash video showing what Sen Kennedy is all about: http://projectthinice.org/flash/whackamill_senators_lg.mov

Michael Ventura says:

China now determines oil demand, and the U.S. has no long-term way to influence prices. That means $4 a gallon by next spring, and rising – $5, then $6, probably $10 by 2010 or thereabouts. Their economy can afford it; ours can’t. We may hobble along with more or less the same way of life for the next dollar or so of hikes, but at around $4 America changes. Drastically. http://www.austinchronicle.com

The Energy Fair targets all sectors and the broad public and provides information on energy efficient technologies and building techniques, renewable energy systems, alternative fuels, energy policy and energy programs. SUNY-Canton is a major partner. NYSERDA is a sponsor.

For more information: Call Anne Heidenreich, North Country Energy $mart Communities at 315-379-9466 or email ces@slic.com. Click here for an agenda.

Steve Spence will be speaking on Off-Grid Energy & Living Systems and participating in an experts panel on Alternative Fuel Vehicles.

The new batteries are being shipped on Monday. Six Trojan L16H’s, which will give us a total bank capacity of 1260ah (up from our current 675ah) will be installed next week. They are being provided by New England Solar. These are a 420ah 6vdc battery, which we will configure in a 2 x 3 matrix at 1260ah 12vdc. They are replacing our very tired 10 year old Trojan T-105’s (2 x 3 matrix of 225ah 6vdc).

Green-Trust is getting a solar upgrade. Four sets of 45 watt panels are being delivered from Harbor Freight. These will be added to our existing 90 watt system. We are also looking for 4 L16 deep cycle batteries to replace our aging pack of 6 T-105’s. If you have a line on a good source, please let us know.

I read the June article “Grease-Powered” about the use of cooking oil for car fuel. It’s a great idea if there are no bears in the area. In the May 29, 2005 issue of the Waterbury Republican-American, A man in Winsted, Connecticut, who had a car that ran on the same fuel, woke up one morning to find that his fuel tank had been ripped out of his car. A bear liked the smell of the fuel so much he drank the cooking oil!

WINSTED — Larry Joy decided to help the environment by fueling his compact car with used vegetable oil pumped from restaurant fry vats. He never figured the scent of french fries would attract a hungry bear with a yen for fast food. That’s what happened two weeks ago, when Joy walked outside his house and found the evidence: muddy paw prints caked around a shattered car window, a plastic fuel tank tipped on its side, gnawed hoses and pool of cooking oil on the rear…

5149 hours and the VeggieGen groaned to a halt. It no longer cranks over, so serious surgery is needed. Rings and bearings will be ordered. Not looking forward to tearing into 2000 lbs of steel and copper. Your help is appreciated:

Spoke with Eric this morning. His ’99 VeggieFord is running like a top on wvo. Switchover from diesel to veggie is 5 minutes at 50F ambient, and from veggie to diesel is less than 60 seconds.

Today we converted Eric’s ’99 F-350 pickup to used fryer oil. With a 80 gallon heated tank in the bed, a heated filter with integrated fuel temperature sensor of our design, and insulated lines, it’s designed for super cold NY winters. See photo’s of the build in our photo album.

Today the Energy and the Environment class at St. Lawrence University came by with a van (and Prius Hybrid) full of students to check out the renewable energy systems at Green-Trust and to talk about sustainability, biofuels, and conservation. Good questions were asked, the tour was given, and some will be coming this weekend to see the Ford F-350 wvo conversion.

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